852 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF PAEIS. 



much might be said of his own Elogcs iu regard to himself. We there see the 

 character of his intellect : " Luminous, comprehensive, and capable of adding 

 something of its own to all acquired knowledge." — Eloge of Saurin. We see 

 also his disposition and turn of thought. He says of Reyneau : " He held 

 himself aloof from business, still more from intrigue, and prized highly the 

 advantages, so little appreciated, of being nothing;" of Tschirnaus : "True 

 philosophy had penetrated to his very heart, and established there that 

 exquisite tranquillity which is the greatest and the least coveted of all posses- 

 sions ;" of Varignon : " 1 have never seen any one who had more conscientious- 

 ness — I mean to say, who applied himself more scrupulously to satisfy the 

 inward sentiment of duty, and contented himself less with having satisfied 

 appearances;" and in the Eloge of Homberg : "Whoever has leisure for 

 thought sees nothing better that he can do than to be virtuous." 



The mind of Fontenelle had all the boldness which a superior judgment 

 peimits, or rather supposes. Otherwise, Avould he have chosen Descartes for 

 a master? "' In all inquiries," says he, " the first systems are too limited, too 

 naiTOw, too timid, and it would seem that truth itself can only be the reward 

 of a certain audacity of reason." But he stipulates that this audacity should 

 be sagacious and discreet. " It is necessary," he says, " to dare in all things, 

 but the difficulty is to dare discreetly; it is to reconcile a contradiction." — 

 Eloge of Chazclles. 



No one had more clearly or closely observed the powers of the human intel- 

 lect than the contiuuer of Descartes and the historian of Leibnitz and of New- 

 ton; but he had observed those powers without being dazzled, and was aware 

 of their limits. "A. first veil," he says, " which covered the Isis of the 

 Egyptians, has been for some time removed ; a second, if you please, has been 

 so in our own day; a third will not be removed, if that third be the last." — 

 Eloge of Ruyscli. 



Colbert, having founded the Academy of Sciences in 1666, continued to be 

 its immediate protector while he lived. On his death, which occurred in 1683, 

 the Academy was transferred to Louvois, appointed superintendent of construe- 

 tions, arts and manufactures in the place of Colbert ; and on the death of Lou- 

 vois in 1691, it passed to Pontchartrain, at first Secretary of State, and after- 

 wards Chancellor of France. Pontchartrain gave the Academy in charge to 

 the Abbo Bignon, his nephew, and "by doing so," says Fontenelle, "rendered 

 to the sciences one of the greatest favors they have ever received from a minis- 

 ter." The abbe, who had long presided over the body, and thoroughly under- 

 stood its constitution, contributed much, in fact, by his views and his influenc.e, 

 to the great reorganization of 1699. When the Duke of Orleans became Re- 

 gent, he reserved to himself the government of the Academy. " He treated 

 our sciences," says Fontenelle, " as a private domain, of which he was jealous." 

 This prince, it is well known, possessed much taste and even talent for the 

 sciences ; he had become a chemist with Homberg, and evinced that specula- 

 tive curiosity which belongs to genius, but unfortunately as ill regulated as all 

 his other qualities.* 



The Regent having assumed the direction of the Academy, the personage who 

 represented it, whether secretary or president, Fontenelle or the Abbo Bignon, 

 was naturally called upon to assist him in his labors. Fontenelle, with hia 

 usual delicacy, wished to defer this honor to the Abb<i Bignon. " Nothing 

 could be more courteous," replied the latter, " than your proposal that I should 

 have the honor of rendering to his Highness, the Regent, an account of the 

 afiairs of the Academy of Sciences ; but the matter would be infinitely better 



*"IIe was curious in all sorts of arts and sciences. He has often told me that he had 

 sought, by all the means at his command, to obtain a sight of the devil and other extiaor 

 din%y objects, and to know the future." — Memoircs dc Saint Simon, V, p. 121. 



